So, I had a relatively civil discussion with an anti war leftist over Biden/Haley over the likes of leftists on foreign policy, and at one point, they said it's easy for older people to support someone like that over an anti war leftist, because they won't be drafted. It seems like one reason the anti war left is existentially afraid of war is over the possibility of being drafted.
I'm not sure the draft will ever come back unless we got into a MAJOR war. it is highly unpopular, we got rid of it for several reasons, not just because it is unpopular, but also because unwilling participants don't make great soldiers anyway. We've moved to an all volunteer army in part due to political pressures after vietnam, and in part because the military just doesn't want draftees. The military turns away lots of potential applicants, due to weight issues, other health issue, drug use, etc., they aren't likely to bring back a draft unless they need tons of manpower really quickly. They'd likely loosen requirements first, and only draft people as a last resort. I just wanna throw that out there.
I know how this is an existential issue for young people, a huge reason i flipped on iraq in Bush's 2nd term was because i was watching his troop surges nervously and wondering if he would resort to drafting. Heck, the issue of the draft was always touchy for me back in the 2000s. I remember after 9/11, despite only being like 14, worrying about being drafted once i turned 18. It never happened, but it always weighed on me and I get that.
And even now, I have kind of learned my lessons from that war. I dont want to get involved in more quagmires than we have to. I dont want to get involved in a war with boots in the ground and casualties. US foreign policy should aim to try to minimize that.
Honestly, I only have one major requirement for foreign policy: that whomever is in charge doesn't F up. Now, there's two ways someone can F up. George W. Bush F-ed up by going straight into two wars with no exit strategy, and dooming us to 8 years in Iraq and 20 in Afghanistan (it's mindblowing we just got out of that finally UNDER BIDEN). Being overly aggressive, like a neocon does, is bad. We don't want a president that inflames tensions, starts wars, etc.
But at the same time, there is another way to F up, and that's by doing the opposite. Being too soft, being too dovish, wanting to be isolationist. Not responding properly when another world power tries to start crap on their own. And that's why I fear someone like Cornel West, or Jill Stein, or even, to a lesser degree, Marianne Williamson. Because international politics is like a complex chess game of doom. We need to play against these other powers. And to some extent, we have to be tough, as a matter of deterrence. America used to be isolationist. When that was the case, we had two world wars. Admittedly, the first one was unavoidable due to the geopolitical alliances and the fact that everyone and their mother in Europe seemed to be looking for an excuse to fight a war with each other (France and Germany had been rearing to go since the Franco-Prussian War in 1871). But World War II? Well, let's talk about how THAT one started.
First, Hitler decided to invade the Sudetenland. His argument was eerily similar to Russia's invasion of Ukraine, he argued that it was his territory in the first place and that the people there were ethnically german. No one actually wanted to fight another war after WWI, so the allies led by Britain's Neville Chamberlain basically let him have it. He said that we had peace in our time.
Okay. It might seem like by letting Hitler have that, we avoided war with him. We didn't risk another conflict, we just basically let him have what he wanted. But then Hitler decided to invade Poland. And then it was on. And the European powers got sucked into a war, and Hitler sucker punched a bunch of them with his blitzkrieg strategy, and he actually came out seemingly victorious in Europe, pushing the UK back to their island, and taking over most of Europe. Then he got greedy and decided to attack Russia. And we got involved after Japan decided to attack us at pearl harbor. That's the thing, despite trying to stay out of stuff, we inevitably got VERY involved. And it was a much broader conflict than it otherwise would've been if we did the right thing and stopped Germany early on.
That's what led to the US having the massive presence. After WWII, we were undeniably the top dog after Europe bombed itself into oblivion. And we basically decided, especially in an era where collective security relied on deterring russia from its own acts of aggression, that the US take charge of world defense.
I'm not saying we've been perfect stewards of the world. We've had our missteps, like Vietnam. But we largely did everything we did in order to indirectly counter the russians and their actions. And then the cold war ended, and we had a couple decades where we were just undeniably top dog, and faith in our leadership wavered due to Bush's actions in Iraq and Afghanistan. I get it, guys, I get it. We kinda F-ed up.
But, now that we're in the 2020s, and that chapter is closed, let's look at the world as it is now. We got Russia trying to pull a hitler in Ukraine. My logic for supporting our military support of Ukraine is simple. We need to deter the russians from trying this crap again. I studied history, I learned from it, you can't F with the russians. If they wanna play games like this, they gotta find out. Otherwise they'll do it again and we WILL have a big war.
Same with china and taiwan. if we didnt promise to protect taiwan, China would go for it. And that would start another war there. And they might be emboldened to go further.
If we suddenly stopped backing Israel, a lot of arabic nations like Iran, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, they might attack israel. Think about that before you start criticizing "genocide joe" for his support of israel. I have no doubt Biden has been talking to him behind the scenes. I get the impression things are tense between him and netanyahu right now. But he aint going to publicly question our relationship with israel, because it might show weakness to our mutual enemies. And that WILL start a war.
As much as I'd love to be an isolationist, we gotta understand that we live in a global world, and yes, sometimes these things do affect us. Maybe we wont notice much at first, but eventually, if we dont maintain a strong stance and a level of military readiness that tells our enemies that if they wanna F around that they're gonna find out, they are going to F around UNTIL they find out.
I'm not going to support a war hawk. I'm not gonna support someone who wants to just bomb iran and invade countries for no reason to show off our strength. I'm a liberal. I support multilateralism and the use of "soft power" rather than hard power.
But at the same time, I'm not one of these anti war leftists who seem to want the destruction of the US world order, which would be disastrous across the globe. We cant just be isolationist. We need a balance between being strong and also being diplomatic.
I want foreign policy to be "boring". I want no major events to happen on any president's watch. I want a president who will respond when we have to, but doesn't provoke crap. To be succinct, I want STABILITY.
And THAT, gen Z, is how you avoid getting drafted.
We need to fix messes while they're small, or they become big and unavoidable. We cant bury our head in the sand on world issues. If we dont go to them, they will eventually come to us, and when THAT happens, THAT'S when you have to worry about getting drafted. Because then we're in another major war like we haven't seen in 80 years. Don't F around and wait to find out. Just fricking vote for Biden and international stability if this is a concern of yours.
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